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Create Offline Files Folder Shortcut in Windows 10

As you may already know, Offline Files is a special feature of Windows that allows you to access files stored on a network share locally, even when you are not connected to that network. In modern Windows version, it includes a special "Always Offline" mode, that saves your bandwidth by syncing files between your PC and the appropriate network share periodically.

Switch its view to either "Large icons" or "Small icons" as shown below.

Find the Sync Center icon.

Open Sync Center and click on the link Manage offline files on the left.

Click on the View your offline files button.

This will open the Offline Files folder.

It is quite a long procedure. To save your time, you can create a special shortcut to open the Offline Files folder directly, with one click.

To create the Offline Files Folder shortcut in Windows 10, do the following.

Open the Offline Files folder as described above.

Click and hold the left mouse button on the folder icon in the address bar.

Drag it to the Desktop.

The shortcut is now created.

Alternatively, you can create the same shortcut manually by using a special command as the shortcut's target.

Manually Create Offline Files Folder Shortcut

Right click the empty space on your Desktop. Select New - Shortcut from the context menu (see the screenshot).

In the shortcut target box, type or copy-paste the following:

explorer.exe shell:::{AFDB1F70-2A4C-11d2-9039-00C04F8EEB3E}

See the following screenshot:

Use the line "Offline Files Folder" without quotes as the name of the shortcut. Actually, you can use any name you want. Click on the Finish button when done.

Now, right click the shortcut you created and select Properties.

On the Shortcut tab, you can specify a new icon if you wish. The suitable icon can be found in the %SystemRoot%\system32\cscui.dll file. Click OK to apply the icon, then click OK to close the shortcut properties dialog window.

The command used for the shortcut is a special shell:command which allows opening various Control Panel applets and system folders directly. To learn more about shell: commands available in Windows 10, refer to the following article:

About Sergey Tkachenko

Sergey Tkachenko is a software developer from Russia who started Winaero back in 2011. On this blog, Sergey is writing about everything connected to Microsoft, Windows and popular software. Follow him on Facebook, Twitter or Google+.